Surprised we don't have a topic for this. I thought it was a pretty amazing show for a network sitcom--structurally very clever, with an interesting twist every single episode, including the brilliant twist of the first season finale.

I was skeptical of the show when I saw the first trailers but my buddy made me watch the first 15 minutes of the first episode and I was hooked. My wife decided she wanted to watch it too and we both loved it. The twist at the end was brilliant, though I do wonder how long they can keep the premise going.

Tonight's premiere was just brilliant. Loved the new tortures for Tahani especially. Really, really loved how Michael-centric it's become, and the manic, desperate flailing as he watches his vision collapse is hilarious. Did I mention that I love the concept of butthole spiders? I do.

Yeah, they kept up the twists and turns. My guess would be that next somehow these four people have changed sufficiently through being tortured that the opposite is happening--they're growing towards The Good Place in ways that are persisting each time Michael restarts the experiment. Which I suspect could be the next twist: what if Michael is a double-agent trying to rescue people from The Bad Place? (Or what if he has to flee with the four of them towards The Mediocre Place in order to escape 'retirement'?) Lots of fun potential, and I suspect they'll keep us guessing throughout.

Tonight's premiere was just brilliant. Loved the new tortures for Tahani especially. Really, really loved how Michael-centric it's become, and the manic, desperate flailing as he watches his vision collapse is hilarious. Did I mention that I love the concept of butthole spiders? I do.

Holy shirtballs, but this show manages to surprise every time. They just blew up a season's worth of plots in a single episode and it was amazing.

I'm pretty sure now that the whole thing is set in Michael's Bad Place and that Janet is the one doing it--the Good Place is experimenting with whether they can make Bad Place demons into better beings. Or something like that.

I kind of thought Michael would end up where he is but I thought it'd be at least half a season. My only worry with this show is how long until they run out of new plot twists to throw at us?

"We live in a country, where John Lennon takes six bullets in the chest, Yoko Ono was standing right next to him and not one fucking bullet! Explain that to me! Explain that to me, God! Explain it to me, God!" - Denis Leary summing up my feelings about the nature of the universe.

This show is hilarious. 8 episodes in. Literally have not laughed so much in a while. The leaving party Tahani threw was the best thing I've seen Danson do ever and what was worse he totally captured the essence of my character. Was like looking in a mirror.

Watching some of the first season again and it's amazing. Sometimes when something has a big twist, it ruins what came before it, because either it doesn't seem that the earlier part of the story is consistent with the twist, or everything is made irrelevant by it. In this case, it's the opposite--everything takes on a new meaning while still being extremely funny, and you can see from the first moment that the big twist was completely planned all along.

Danson's smile when his big secret is revealed is one of the great bits of comedic acting ever.

I've found even my girlfriend enjoys this show and she hates both comedy and fantasy/sci-fi stuff. This is practically the only thing on TV that doesn't feature British aristocracy/royalty that she's willing to watch.

"Look at my car. Do you think that was bought with the earnest love of geeks?" - HaemishM

I think this one is going to find it really hard to hit the perfect pacing and rewatchibility of season 1. It worked well enough and I found it even sweet at times but I'm not sure how they stretch it out past a season 3. Perhaps they end up in the Good Place, discover it's actually pretty rubbish and overthrow the entire concept of an after-life? As a philosophy nerd I have to admit I do enjoy seeing some of the concepts being thrown around. Not super deep but how many modern sitcoms quote Kant on the regular?

"Look at my car. Do you think that was bought with the earnest love of geeks?" - HaemishM

Yeah, I'd be happy with it ending there. I'd also haven been happy with them finishing Season 1 where they did.

I'm curious if they'll take it in the direction of changing up approaches to the afterlife? Like exploring reincarnation or purgatory type settings? I really like the show but it's hard to see where they can get themes to carry the newer series from that won't feel weirdly forced.

"Look at my car. Do you think that was bought with the earnest love of geeks?" - HaemishM

Well, the start of Season 3 seems like it will take place on 'Earth' with the quartet continuing their 'lives', but being drawn to each other. I'm imagining there will be a storyline about Michael breaking the rules by drawing them together or something... my question is: Is that one episode, or all of Season 3? I trust in them, but have no confidence I can predict where they're headed more tha n 5 minutes of show out...

I strongly suspect they end up on earth, are drawn together while Michael and the Judge watch. Then Sean arrives from the Bad Place and accuses Michael of making the test unfair, demands he gets dropped into the simulation and more hijinks. I don't think they will keep to a vanilla earth situation, the question is what kind of growth the characters manage to achieve? That's been the bit of this show that has kept it from getting stale set up wise, the characters have all shown some kind of growth (aside from probably Jason and somewhat Chidi). I guess it might be interesting to have a major arc of Sesaon 3 being Eleanor helping Chidi to actually improve, which would be a great mirror to season 1. In some ways the backdrop situation is less important than keeping the characters from getting stale.

"Look at my car. Do you think that was bought with the earnest love of geeks?" - HaemishM

I still like the idea that this is all actually an experiment of The Good Place that has gone sideways in some way, maybe by redeeming a demon more effectively than it has allowed people to overcome damnation. It would be kind of hilarious if the experiment is a wager between Kant and Schopenhauer or something like that.